Lorena Dinger (aka Kat) is a tea drinking, book loving, crazy cat lady in the making. Her partner Cathy Zupke (aka Ekpuz) is a maker, juggler, chemical engineer, teacher, and general goofball.

We have included a photo of ourselves and our cat, Stevie, taken at Christmas. You can see some of Cathy’s art and crafts in the background.

We were excited to win a stowaway slot in the Writers on the Moon Payload. When choosing what to include, we looked for a variety of photographs and short pieces of writing that give some sense of our personalities and the things we love.

Lorena chose to include a photo of herself with a young bobcat that she raised while doing wildlife rehabilitation at Cougar Country in Eugene, Oregon. Working with animals, and especially cats, is one of her life-long passions.

Cathy has included a photo of herself making bunny ears behind the renowned physicist, Richard Feynman. This was taken outside her dorm at Caltech, Ruddock House, circa 1984. Feynman was there officiating a game of “Feynman Says” and did a masterful job at it.

Cathy has included a photo of her dog, Meekah, catching a frisbee. It took her about 4 dogs (over 30 years) to finally get one that was interested in playing frisbee. Meekah took to it naturally and can be quite stylish in the air. The pictures of a single jump were taken and digitally combined by Karyn Zupke.

Lorena included some additional photos of herself at the Faerieworlds Festival in Eugene, Oregon; enjoying the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival; and learning to ride a Segway. 

Cathy has included her illustrated poem, “The Big Telescope.”  This was created while an undergrad at Caltech. At that time, she was heavily influenced by Shel Silverstein’s books of poems and drawings. 

Cathy included a few of the love poems she wrote for Lorena, including “Chemistry,” “Gravity,” “Polarity,” and “Space.” 

Lorena included two short personal narratives, “Learning to Accept a Helping Hand” and “The Bittersweet Joy of Bonding with an Older Pet.” These stories deal with coping with chronic illness.

Lorena also included a blog post, “Bowie Bonds and Other Intellectual Property Rights Securitizations.” This post was written for the Greenfield Advisors blog. This post was fun to write, because financial securitizations are such a crazy topic, and Lorena has always been a huge fan of David Bowie. 

Our submission is dedicated to David Bowie. Rest in peace, Starman–Earth hasn’t been the same since you left!